What About Those K-Cups®?

If you’re signed up for my eMessages, which normally arrive on Monday mornings, are you wondering why you’re getting this now, in the middle of the week?

And why would he be writing about K-Cups®?

I’ve been gearing my writing toward the 2016 theme created through the larger organization, Centers for Spiritual Living, with whom I’m associated. It’s wonderful to feel a part of something bigger, something global. But, I’m finding that I’m somehow losing the personalized message of “me” in the global movement. I promise to change that starting next Monday, but in addition to my weekly blog I’ll be sending out periodic messages and writings about ideas and issues that I find important to me personally or to the readers I’m hearing from.

Now. Back to the K-Cup®.

For those of you who may not know what a “K-Cup®” is, they are plastic pods of coffee, tea, hot chocolate powder or other liquids that are inserted in a Keurig® machine (thus the “K” designation), thus saving time when you want a drink.

But what are we losing when we do this?

The discussion surfaced earlier this week when it dawned on me that in our household alone we were tossing away a significant amount of plastic when throwing away the used K-Cups®. The pods can be recycled (DUH!), as long as the innards are discard; the grounds could also be used in a garden, potted plants or a compost pile.

What we are gaining with any convenience – mobile devices, microwave ovens, the list goes on – is time. We are automating one activity so as to give us the opportunity to “make better use of our time.” At least allegedly.

But at what cost? Religious Science practitioner, Kevin McGhee, recently stated in this conversation, “… almost anything that is created for convenience – time saving [activities], single servings, etc. – are a drag on the earth, …” He believes, quite rightly I think, that fast foods or prepackaged portions can’t nearly sustain us the way whole foods can. In the name of time saving and the Western way of thinking that “we deserve it,” we are sacrificing our health and the future of our planet.

However, there’s an even greater issue here that bears our scrutiny. I’m old enough to remember the “Captain Kangaroo” TV show when I was a kid. There was this one episode I remember when the Captain talked about these new thing-a-ma-gigs called “computers.” They were going to make our work much lighter. In fact, they’d eventually do so much for us that we could complete much of our five-day work week in three days, and have a four-day weekend EVERY WEEK to enjoy life and one another! WOO-HOO!

That’s not quite the way it came down, however. It’s true that computers, automation, robots and the ongoing work of A.I. (artificial intelligence) research continue to free up humanity from the more mundane chores. Yet, instead of using this extra time for leisure, we’ve doubled (or more) our output to competitively increase our own productivity and hopefully our income – by working 50, 60, 70, 80 or more hours a week.

We’re losing ourselves in automation.

We’re losing our spirit.

We’re losing our humanity.

And some of us are putting ourselves in an early grave.

I’m not suggesting we throw out our mobile devices and I’m not giving up my Keurig®. I am positing, however, that although-Cups, meditation, environment, recycling, peace, harmony, joy, ease, stresswe can check email while we’re nuking our dinner, it may not be to our best spiritual and physical benefit to do so consistently.

Ten or twenty minutes of meditation once or twice a day can completely recharge and revitalize our bodies and minds. In the same way, using coffee again as an example, taking a few extra minutes to brew the coffee in a French press or percolator can give us a breather of sorts. We can commune with our own thoughts, each other or simply “be.”

Again, I’m not suggesting we stop all our automated activities. Perhaps we can all be just a little more aware, a bit more mindful, of how and why we are doing what we’re doing. Slowly and gently, we may be able to bring back the joy of living in simpler ways than our hectic society is demanding.